


Home Front

by bowsofwrath



Category: Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Community: shkinkmeme, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Victorian Sherlock Holmes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 16:43:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2819141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowsofwrath/pseuds/bowsofwrath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a prompt on the shkinkmeme: Mrs. Hudson taking care of both Holmes and Watson while Holmes is taking care of Watson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Front

“There you go Mr. Holmes. I've made tea and soft boiled eggs.” Mrs. Hudson lead the weary Detective by the hand into the sitting room of 221B Baker Street. Dawn was breaking on the third day Sherlock Holmes had gone without sleep. The lack of rest not caused by a perplexing case, but by a relapse of Dr. Watson’s enteric fever.

“I don’t have time for this right now. He needs me” Holmes protested but still let himself be lead away from his bedroom where Watson was sleeping fitfully. It had been almost a week since the doctor fell ill and he was getting worse by the day. “You will do him no good in the sate you’re in” she said.

The settee had been set up with pillows and a blanket. There was a tray on the table next to it. Mrs. Hudson had even had the forethought to place Holmes’s pipe and tobacco on the table. Holmes stood bleary eyed next to the settee watching Mrs. Hudson pour him a cup of tea and adding cream and sugar to his preference. 

“Sit down before you fall down” Mrs. Hudson said pushing gently at Holmes shoulder causing him to crumble onto the settee like an old barn during a wind storm. She placed the cup in his hand “now drink it all” she commanded. The lack of argument from the Detective showed her how exhausted he really was.

Holmes had not left Watson’s bedside for the past nineteen hours. He had been trying to keep the Doctor calm during his fever induced hallucinations. He even held Watson down during his thrashing to keep the doctor from hurting himself. Mrs. Hudson had been supplying a steady supply of clean cloths for cool compresses to try and bring the fever down. 

She had Holmes lift Watson out of bed and onto the chair in Holmes bedroom while she changed sweat soaked sheets, sometimes twice a day. Typically Mrs. Hudson had the laundry sent out, but with the Doctor ill she couldn't wait for the linens to be washed and returned. So she had set up clothes lines in her sitting room to dry the sheets after washing since the steady rain had prevented her from hanging them outside to dry.

By the time Mrs. Hudson came back upstairs with a fresh pitcher of cool water she found that Holmes had finished his tea, half a piece of toast and was snoring softly from where he lay on the settee. She placed the pitcher down to cover the Detective with the blanket.

She walked into Holmes’s bedroom expecting to find Watson still asleep. Instead she found him trying to get out of bed despite being too weak to stand. She quickly placed the pitcher on the dresser and ran over to him. She placed a hand on his clammy chest and with little effort pushed him back down to the mattress.

Watson’s eyes were unfocused darting back and forth looking for an unseen enemy. “Report soldier” he demanded. Part of the reason Holmes was having such a hard time dealing with Watson’s illness was because he kept telling the Doctor the war was over and he was back in London. This only agitated Watson more. 

Mrs. Hudson had some experience with the delirious when she cared for her husband during his illness. “There are no new casualties to report Sir. The enemy has not appeared on the horizon and all is quite.” Mrs. Hudson found it much easier to play along with the delusions to calm someone down in a way they would understand in the mind frame they were in at the time.

Watson relaxed after hearing the news. “Good” he said his voice raspy from the screaming he had done the night before. Mrs. Hudson poured him a cup of water and held his head up so he could take a few sips. “There’s a good lad” she said softly smoothing back his damp hair. 

As he fell back into a light sleep she had wrung out damp cloths and pressed one to the Doctor’s forehead and laid another on his neck. She sat in the chair next to the bed to keep watch over him while Holmes slept.

The war in the desert was over but the battle still raged on the home front.


End file.
